Oscar needs to be in a diaper for probably another three months. He's being really terrific about not chewing or pestering things with his mouth, but it itches and he's rubbing his butt on things to ease that. Which pulls the diaper off, which puts open wound against all kinds of things that feel good to scratch on, which leads to filth and contamination.

I don't know how to keep a diaper on him in a way that he can't booty-bump off.

does he tolerate wearing an outfit- I'm imagining a onsie with diaper well attached underneath ( pinned?) or maybe those swim diapers for kids - just throwing things out... poor Oscar... and you - what a tough journey!

If they made onsies that big, I'd suggest the same. One of my grooming clients is a paralyzed dachshund, and his mom uses a onsie to keep his diaper on. Otherwise, I think clipping it to a harness sounds like a good idea. Also, the head of a local rescue has to use baby diapers on her dog without a tail. She says the dog diapers are built so they rely on the tail being there, and without it, they fall off.

When Honey went through her first heat before being spayed, I tried the doggy diaper route and she would have them off in an instant. It was a pain. So I went to Wal Mart, bought a couple packages of little girls undies and cheap, super absorbent pads. I put the pads in the underwear, cut the sides along the hems and a hole for the tail. After cutting the sides, I was able to tie it on like a bikini type deal. They stayed on well and were snug around her waist, so she couldn't get them off without really trying. I don't know how much coverage you need with Oscar's wounds but you could likely do the same type of deal with adult diapers. But not the diapers kind. The adult underwear that's like a diaper.

It's really just his tail stub that's open now. The abscesses along the side have healed, but the tail stub is still mostly degloved with no skin at all on 3/4 of it. He's doing his best to pop every stitch left on that doing little butt bumps on everything possible. Two diapers on top of each other works most days, it's just the days that doesn't work he shreds things again. I'll try something like Depends (is that what you're suggesting? or did I misunderstand)

True story - tails grow longer and shorter depending on the dog's level of excitement. Boxer owners may already know this. I didn't. But when your dog has no skin, and sometimes there's two inches of stump sticking out and sometimes there's four inches, you notice.

Amie wrote:It's really just his tail stub that's open now. The abscesses along the side have healed, but the tail stub is still mostly degloved with no skin at all on 3/4 of it. He's doing his best to pop every stitch left on that doing little butt bumps on everything possible. Two diapers on top of each other works most days, it's just the days that doesn't work he shreds things again. I'll try something like Depends (is that what you're suggesting? or did I misunderstand)

True story - tails grow longer and shorter depending on the dog's level of excitement. Boxer owners may already know this. I didn't. But when your dog has no skin, and sometimes there's two inches of stump sticking out and sometimes there's four inches, you notice.

Yeah, like Depends. Something you could cut the sides of and retie to keep it snug.

And I didn't know that about dog's tails. That is so odd but neat to know

Is there any way you can cover the tail only. Maybe some vet wrap around a thigh that goes up and then wraps around the tail. That could help with him getting it off. Like wrapping an ace bandage around your wrist and up over your thumb.

Could you wrap the tail and then pin it against his butt or leg somehow? Not sure how much tail you're working with here

I have plans to ask the doctor tomorrow night in his check up, but I don't know. When he's not excited, the tail is maybe only two or three inches- definitely not enough to pin to anything else. (when he is excited it's four or five inches - it grows by a good two inches) I don't know if the doc would be able to bandage what's there - that would be my pick, but it would mean not having daily visual contact to see that we're moving in the right direction, and we wouldn't be able to do daily saline flushes, which we're still doing. So it definitely requires more input from my vet.

We're looking into that. I haven't found any that would fit over his thighs but wouldn't have wide/loose enough openings that they would slide aside and expose the diaper anyway. But I'm still looking!

They mention using several things to make a cover for the tail. The most interesting might be the hair curler since they are smooth inside, come in different lengths (since Oscars tail grows when excited) and they have holes for air circulation. Just wondering if there is a way you could somehow secure the curler over the tail in the diaper?